A16 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE SUNDAY • SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

WORKERS “I thought I’d be a

FROM A1
longer than their younger bargain to someone
peers when they lose a job.
Their hourly pay also starts
to decline as they enter
but they didn’t
their 60s, regardless of how
much education they have.
“We are living longer. We
see it that way.
are living healthier. We
want to work,” said Susan
Weinstock, vice president
I understand now
of financial resiliency for
the AARP. “We have this la- how the world
bor shortage, and we hear
about the skills shortage.
Older workers can fill those
works and it’s not
needs if employers will
open themselves up to the
idea that an older worker
to the benefit of
could be exactly what they
need. Don’t think only older people.”
about the stereotypes but
about the individual peo- Tom Middleton, 66, who drives a bus for
ple.” MTS after losing his job at Kyocera
RetirementJobs.com HAYNE PALMOUR IV U-T
CEO Tim Driver said he
was motivated to start the
company 12 years ago, in
part, after his father, then
in his 60s, lost his bank job
and was subsequently re-
placed by someone 10 years
younger.
“I thought this wasn’t
right and wanted to take it
on not just as a business
but to pursue a passion
around ageism in the work-
place,” said Driver, for-
merly of AOL and sala-
ry.com.
Since starting the site,
Driver says he is buoyed by
the high renewal rate
among the 7,200 employers
who have posted job open-
ings on the site — more
than 160,000, which are re-
freshed daily. The company
also has certified about 100
larger employers, from
Home Depot and Marriott
International to Scripps
Health, as age-friendly,
Driver says.
“The listings are evi-
dence there’s interest in
older workers and particu-
larly in the labor cycle we’re
in where there’s more de-
mand than ever,” said
Driver. “But that doesn’t
mean there isn’t a problem
in America where employ-
ers believe older workers
are slow, long in the tooth,
not up to date on
technology, and more ex-
pensive.”

Why work longer?

Changing demo-
graphics and compensa-
tion for older Americans
have been upending the re-
tirement landscape since
the 1990s.
In a reversal of a dec-
ades-long trend toward
earlier retirement, 55-plus DON BOOMER PHOTOS
workers made up 22.4 per-
cent of the U.S. workforce
in 2016, up from just 12 per-
“With this job, I can now finally sleep at night and go to work happy
and not be walking through the door dreading how am I going to
cent 20 years earlier, ac-
cording to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics. By
2026, when baby boomers
will have reached ages 62 to make up for a half-million dollar overrun on a construction job.”
80, that share is expected to
rise to 25 percent. David Sapper, 64, formerly had a management job in the construction industry and is now a caravan driver for San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Workforce participation
also has risen sharply, with
about 40 percent of people
ages 55 or older either “... I have
working or actively looking
for work today, compared
with 30 percent in 1996. A a hard time,
survey last year by the
Transamerica Center for
Retirement Studies found
asking people
for help and
that more than half of those
queried said they plan to
work past age 65 or do not
plan to retire.
Economists offer multi- making those
ple theories about what is
driving people to work
longer, including improv-
connections,
ing health, higher educa-
tion and a shift toward less
physically demanding jobs.
promoting
The gradual phaseout
of traditional employer
pensions and a corre-
myself after
sponding rise in more vola-
tile 401(k) plans have also being at a job
discouraged earlier retire-
ments. At the same time,
an increase in the Social
for a long
Security full retirement age
(now 66 and rising) has in-
duced more people to stay
time.”
in the workforce longer by
Kim Selznick, 64, is looking for
rewarding them with
higher monthly payments. work after being laid off in April
“There is a whole set of
people who have never
really recovered from the Brookings Institution. In need of full-time not be able to have the ca- Sapper, now 64, said it felt cant cut in pay, but he also
Great Recession,” said We- “Just look at the kind of work, she recently applied reer I am capable of and still like a “punch in the gut” said working at Safari Park
instock of AARP. “If your people who, even in their for a staff development po- want.” when he lost his highly paid has meant much less stress
retirement accounts took a 80s, delayed their retire- sition at a local startup af- As Arth quickly learned, management job as part of in his life.
hit at that time, it has only ment. They have Ph.D.s, ter her hours were cut at finding work at an older age a downsizing move seven “There was a time where
been 10 years, and it takes a graduate degrees, there’s Palomar. During a phone can be a frustratingly long years ago. I had said, ‘Dave, you might
lifetime to build up those just a bigger bunch of baby interview, she was asked process. On average, older Recognizing he would have to get that job at Tar-
retirement accounts.” boomers who have those how she could relate to the workers stay unemployed have to settle for pay well get or something like that,’”
Workers 55 and older credentials than previous startup’s millennial work- longer than younger work- below his previous six-fig- Sapper recalled of his job
have been the fastest grow- generations,” he said. force because of her age. ers — about 37 weeks for ure salary, he spent nearly a search. “But with this job, I
ing segment of the U.S. la- “Yes, some of this (work- Arth had never dis- people 55-plus compared year looking for work be- can now finally sleep at
bor force since 1996, and ing longer) is because of fi- closed how old she was, but with 25 weeks for workers fore taking a job he never night and go to work happy
that trend is expected to nancial privation, but for a she believes the human re- ages 35 to 44, according to could have envisioned for and not be walking through
continue through 2026, ac- lot of people, they like to sources representative fig- 2017 Bureau of Labor Stat- himself. the door dreading how am I
cording to the Bureau of work and understand the fi- ured it out from her istics data. For the last six years, going to make up for a half-
Labor Statistics. At the nancial payoffs for doing LinkedIn profile. Wage data assembled by Sapper has been a caravan million dollar overrun on a
same time, the growth so.” “Staff development is the Federal Reserve Bank driver for San Diego Zoo construction job.”
rates for younger age about the individual, not of Atlanta also shows aver- Safari Park, escorting visi- Ellyn Terry, economic
groups aren’t projected to Longer jobless me,” said Arth, who has age hourly pay for full-time tors on two-hour tours that policy specialist with the
increase much over the stretches been searching for work workers starting to decline include close-up views of gi- Federal Reserve Bank of
next decade. Susan Arth, 63, has since June. “But the prog- after age 60 across all edu- raffes, rhinos and an- Atlanta, surmised that one
As much as the need for worked as a career counsel- ress of this position cation groups. Those stat- telopes. Since joining the reason for the decrease in
financial stability is push- or for more than 15 years, stopped at that point.” istics, though, are only for park, he has worked his way pay that some workers like
ing the retirement age including most recently She applied for one full-time employees and up to nearly 40 hours a Sapper see as they age may
higher, there are some peo- working part time for on- other career counseling job therefore don’t reflect the week, earning $45,000 to have to do with reduced
ple who simply like their line outplacement website that she believes her age part-time work many older $50,000 a year, he said. productivity.
jobs and aren’t ready to Careerminds and at Pa- blocked her from getting an workers typically take, ei- Sapper acknowledged “There’s economic theory
stop working, said Gary lomar College. She also op- interview. As weeks turn ther by choice or necessity. that his wife’s job as a that says prime productivity
Burtless, a senior fellow in erates her own consulting into months, Arth has a After 35 years in the con- school administrator al- declines close to the end of
economic studies with the business. “sinking feeling that I will struction industry, David lowed him to take a signifi- our careers,” she said. “And